More Bone Fragments Found By Garrido Home

September 16, 2009 8:32:05 PM PDT

By Laura Anthony

ANTIOCH, CA --

Investigators began tearing down sheds behind the home of accused kidnappers Phillip and Nancy Garrido Wednesday. They are charged with imprisoning Jaycee Dugard for 18 years. Investigators are now looking for clues in the disappearance of Michaela Garecht and Ilene Misheloff, reported kidnapped in the 70s and 80s. Investigators wrapped up another day of intensive searching of Phillip Garrido's property and that of his neighbor. Investigators say they have found bone fragments on both properties, but at this point it is unknown if they are human or animal.

Inch by inch, investigators and evidence technicians on their hands and knees combed the backyard of Phillip Garrido's neighbor, looking for evidence that might be related to the disappearance of two young girls in the late 1980s.

At one point, an investigator pulled the lid off an underground utility box and called others over to look.

"Every piece of evidence that you come across, it's gone through each one of those team members to determine if it has value or does not have value, because you got to understand this yard is piled high with junk," Dublin Police Department spokesperson Lieutenant Kurt von Savoye said.

In Garrido's backyard, teams of workers with chainsaws and shovels spent the day clearing trees and debris. Then, heavy equipment moved in and started tearing down structures.

The renewed interest in Garrido's property comes as police realize there are similarities between the abduction of Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and those of Michaela Garecht in Hayward in 1988 and Ilene Misheloff in Dublin in 1989.

The car Garrido is accused of using to kidnap Dugard -- a grey Ford -- also matches the description vehicles used in the two other unsolved cases. And the suspect sketch in the Garecht case resembles Garrido at the time.

"The investigators have told me that Phillip Garrido was a hoarder, that they don't think he's thrown away anything he ever owned, so that gives them some hope that if he ever had something related to Michaela, it still might be there," Michaela Garecht's mother Sharon Murch said.

Police say they are nearly finished with the exterior searches of the properties and removal of debris. They plan to bring in search dogs to help them search the grounds. They have yet to find anything related to Garecht or Misheloff.